Life=Relationship!

Over the past month, I've enjoyed several different events and thought it would be neat to share them with you!! This photo is the street party after La Liga (Soccer Team) won the championship!  I watched the game at a friends house with other Young Life leaders.        

            May was a month of endings...  Last Young Life Club-  Lead by our graduating seniors.  This gave these students the opportunity to play their favorite games and sing their favorite songs from over the years of going to Young Life.   

Last YL Club! 

Our last Wyld Life club was themed after The Guiness World Records!! What a hit!! The kids LOVED it!!  I believe they set the record for the most laughs in the HAHA game!! Gotta love a room full of kids laughing for no reason :) 

From Left to Right, Me, Jessie, Denae, Jesse, Matt, Josh, and Ali (the three in the middle are the seniors and the others are leaders on my YL team!!

      We had a special dinner for our seniors to thank them for their help and time loving middle school kids.  They three seniors have been Wyld Life leaders to our middle school students, loving them and showing them Christ in their free time! 

July and I with the Costa Rica Flag in our neighborhood, San Francisco!

 A great deal of my time is spent with my host family!  I love talking to them and learning about th culture and language through our conversations!  This is July my house sister and one night we cooked dinner with one of her friends.  Well really I taught them how to make pasta haha

One weekend, I was able to go out of the city and spend sweet time with my dear friend Jeni and her family!  Jeni was my boss when I was an intern 2 years ago and is from Spartanburg, SC, where I went to college! We can relate on a lot of things!! I spent the night on their farm and helped them plant new shrubs for their land! 

Unfortunately, we lost one of our team members this month.  This is a photo of pretty much all the Young Life/Vida Joven community at Josh's going away party!  Please join us in praying that he will be able to come back in the fall to help lead again!! We desperately need him because we don't have a male leader for this school year!!

Mi mama Tica, Olga!! This woman is such a blessing to my time in Costa Rica!! She is so loving and patient with me!  We spend many hours around the kitchen table or counter discussing life and how God works!  She helps me tremendously with my Spanish and processing my time here!  Today, we walked about 5 miles together to go buy her special Gum Tex powder to make Fondant because she makes cakes for a living and has a big one coming up for her neices "Quinciera!"  Quinciera is a huge party that Latinos have for the 15th birthday party kinda like our Sweet 16!  

Last but not least... Graduation!! This Saturday, I treked across town with Ali, another YL leader, to attend Country Day graduation!  It was a neat ceremony and loved hearing the faculty, students, and Canadian Ambassador speak!  It was a special day for many of our students and included a lot of goodbyes since many will be heading either to Europe or the US for college! 

This Ali and I with Denae, a Senior, who is such a joy and truly lights up the room when she enters it.  She's been just a delight for my first few months and has been so welcoming to me!  Its beautiful to see a high school girl who loves Jesus and people the way Denae does. We actually went to her graduation party this past week as well.   Her graduation party was centered around her delight in God and where He's taking her life.  I hope to be able to spend many more moments like these with students who are living their lives for Christ through my time working with students in Costa Rica!

Thank you for your prayers, love and support throughout this past month! Its been tough at times, but God is really teaching me to look for His Goodness in all of my circumstances!  He's given me so many gifts and promises in the midst of missing home and people.  As I've been reading through Luke, He's laid these verses on my heart. 

 "Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth, but bot have a rich relationship with God."

 Luke 12:21 

 "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."  Luke 12:34

God's shown me more than ever that Life is about Relationships! I miss the ones that know me so well but I'm also being pushed to form new ones across culture and language boundaries.  The second verse, God used to convict me to see how I was longing for home and for people at home but not putting my treasure in Him, who is here with me! I encourage you to take a look at your own lives and evaluate if Life=Relationships in your mind and to analyze where you're putting your treasure.  

Thank you for sharing life with me!! I hope this gives you a more complete picture of my time here! I am planning on a new blog soon with views of my life so you can see what I see everyday!! 

Love you all!! Bendiciones a todos!